I recently finished reading William Faulkner's "Go Down, Moses." I think I read this before, but it may be that I only read excerpts from it that were revised before its inclusion in the book. It is really a collection of loosely connected short stories. But William Faulkner considered them to be connected enough to refer to it as a novel rather than a short story collection. I do, too.
I read an Easton Press copy from a gorgeous collection that I bought some months ago. My brand-new kitten, Elfie, chewed on one of the corners of the book lightly. I couldn't bring myself to be upset about it, though. It's just mileage on a loved book... The volume was beautifully illustrated - most of the illustrations were black-and-white but the title page was offset by a gorgeous full color illustration of Old Ben, the bear in "The Bear."
The collection includes six volumes, and this was the left-most one on my bookshelf, so I started with it. I loved this book. Most especially the hunting stories included in here, like "The Bear," and "The Old People." Each story was high-quality, though, and moving in its own disparate way. There's a lot of emotion in this book and, as he is wont to do, William Faulkner can tug on your heartstrings without your seeing it coming or even entirely understanding how he did it. There's so much life in the characters and in the prose. It's stunning.
"The Old People" is really a coming-of-age story about a young boy who is learning to be a woodsman. The same characters show up in "The Bear," but a year later. "The Bear" tells a story that lasts several years, but it is really interesting and fun to read. Old Ben is what they called this enormous bear that had had one of its paws mangled in a bear trap. It had been shot many times but had never fallen. The hunters recruit a wild dog that is powerful and basically fearless, which they named Lion, to hunt Old Ben. It helped, but ultimately it was the resourcefulness, tenacity, and courage of the hunters that bring that years-long hunt to closure.
I regrettably did not retain any quotes while I was reading this although I had come across quite a few that were worthy of sharing. I was immersed...normally I leave myself a trail for where to look those up again or I write them down, but I was too immersed. That's actually probably itself a solid accolade of the book's quality. I didn't want to stop reading to write or note anything much like I don't like to stop to take pictures enough when I go to events. I find I enjoy what I'm doing more if I'm not spending time documenting it...it lives in my head and, ultimately, that's where good stories belong after they've been read.
I highly recommend "Go Down, Moses." As I noted above, every story is high quality. The Easton Press collection has impressed me from the first volume I read...can't wait to go through the rest of them.
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